Sure, some people (e.g., psychopaths) already choose to abuse things they see (or should see) as conscious, a.k.a. other humans. They are not a concern. The co

Sure, some people (e.g., psychopaths) already choose to abuse things they see (or should see) as conscious, a.k.a. other humans. They are not a concern. The concern are people liable to transition to psychopathic behavior towards other humans if they start considering that giving something that talks like a human the treatment you could give an appliance (which you can mindlessly hit if you feel frustrated and it does not do what you want) is OK. Which seems probably because A) the distinguishing quality of a chatbot is “talks like a human” and B) the biggest and only example of “talks like a human” so far has only been other humans. We’re about to see what this would means.